At least 20% of Mamdani appointees have ties to anti-Zionist groups, ADL says

New York City mayor-elect’s transition committee picks have said that ‘Zionism is racism’ and Zionists are worse than Nazis, according to report

NEW YORK — At least 20 percent of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s administrative appointees are connected to anti-Zionist US activist groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, the Anti-Defamation League said in a Monday report.

The ADL released the report after surveying Mamdani’s more than 400 Transition Committee appointees.

Some of the appointees are connected to other anti-Zionist groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Within Our Lifetime, a leading hardline activist group in New York City, the report said.

Two of the appointees posted support for Palestinian “resistance” against Israel, including one who wrote that resistance was “justified” a day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and onslaught, the report said.

At least four of the appointees have ties to Louis Farrakhan, the antisemitic head of the Nation of Islam, such as posting support for Farrakhan online.

The report said at least a dozen of the appointees backed anti-Israel protest encampments on college campuses, and at least five attended the protests.

One appointee to the Committee on Youth and Education joined a CUNY encampment and posted photos of herself standing in front of a banner with an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, and the phrase “Long live the resistance.”

At least 20% of the appointees have posted anti-Zionist or anti-Israel statements online, such as a Committee on Legal Affairs nominee who wrote that “Zionism is racism” and a Committee on Criminal Legal System appointee who was involved in a statement that called Zionism a “genocidal ideology.”

One appointee shared a statement that said Zionists are worse than Nazis and that “Zionists are never Jews,” the report said.

The ADL also noted that many of the appointees did not raise any red flags and that at least 25 members of the transition team have a past relationship with the ADL or a history of support for the Jewish community.

The ADL has launched a “Mamdani Monitor” program to track the mayor-elect, leading to pushback from progressives and criticism from Mamdani himself.

Asked about the report during a Monday press conference, Mamdani said, “I have always spoken out against antisemitism and hatred in any form and have made it clear that the commitment that I have made to protect New Yorkers, to protect Jewish New Yorkers, is one that I will uphold.”

“We must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government, and the ADL’s report oftentimes ignores this distinction, and in doing so, it draws attention away from the very real crisis of antisemitism,” he said.

Last week, Mamdani’s choice for his administration’s director of appointments, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, resigned after antisemitic comments from more than a decade ago surfaced, including a comment decrying “money-hungry Jews.”